Darius looked him up and down and said, "Just about fuckable, I suppose, but hardly up to my standards." [p. 13]
M/M modern AU of Pride and Prejudice. Bennet Rourke is a hospitality student: Darius Lanniker is a wealthy lawyer, slumming it with his friend Tim who's just bought an art gallery in Meriton. Tim falls in love with Bennet's housemate Jamie, but Bennet and Darius -- despite a frisson of sexual attraction between them, and a shared interest in rock-climbing -- do not get along. Bennet would rather hang out with Darius's stepbrother, Wyndham, and support his friends when drama strikes. Only gradually does he revisit his prejudices and assumptions, and realise that Darius is not the villain here.
This was fun, though there were a few plot threads that seemed to be left dangling (Bennet's family, for instance), and some characters who could have been more developed. I enjoyed spotting the parallels between this and Austen, and I like the way in which Reddaway kept the essential plot while giving it a thoroughly modern setting. Perhaps the enormity of Wyndham's crimes has, after all, the impact that Wickham's behaviour would have had in Austen's time -- though Wyndham is considerably more destructive to more people.
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